BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE Right-wing attacks on academia allege that modern secular universities are hotbeds of liberal orthodoxy and must be reformed to expand the range of views on offer to students. This past year, North Carolina Republican legislators and their appointed university trustees used this rhetoric to justify bypassing the faculty and creating a new…
BY MICHAEL C. BEHRENT The ongoing controversy surrounding the Confederate statue known as “Silent Sam” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has raised many issues relating to inclusivity and free expression. But as administrators have sought over the past month to find ways to lay the issue to rest, the controversy has…
BY MICHAEL C. BEHRENT The case of Jay Smith, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill history professor whose course on college athletics was quashed by university administrators, has received considerable attention because it raises serious questions about academic freedom. Yet, as recent events attest, the case is also important on shared governance grounds. Specifically, it…